Category Archives: Announcements

AutoSSL is introduced by cPanel/WHM since version 54 which aids in adding and managing SSL certificates provided by Let’s Encrypt and cPanel. AutoSSL fully automates the the installation and renewal of free SSL certificates which are valid for 3 months.

Hostdepartment provides its Linux unlimited hosting users and the Linux Reseller account holders with the AutoSSL feature. AutoSSL is enabled by default so the SSL certificates and HTTPS for all your sites are enabled by default. You can also purchase our low-cost SSL certificates which are valid for 1 year or more if you are in need for a dedicated SSL provider for as low as $11.95 per year.

The SSL certificates are automatically installed for all domains and sub domains for your sites hosted in the cPanel in addition to the below aliases:

mail.domain.com

webmail.domain.com

cpanel.domain.com

whm.domain.com

If you are using one of the above aliases for accessing your cPanel, webmail or WHM, you can have a HTTPS connection in order to login to the control panel or webmail or WHM.

Do you have a cPanel hosting or reseller account with us and do not see HTTPS for your site? You can contact us by live chat or email or through a support request form.

Basically a Search Engine is a software that runs to collect information from world wide web. When a person searches for a word or any information let’s say host department, the search engines collects all the information present in world wide web and displays the resulted information in an order, this page is referred as “Search Engine Results Page”. The collected results will be displayed according to word’s priority and then the ranking of the websites. Know its is a big question, How are rankings assigned to the websites?Answer is, based on “Search Engine Algorithms”. These search algorithms will vary from one search engine to another. There are many Search engines but the most used and popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, Bing.

Every search engine follows an algorithm to serve their best to the users. But why an algorithm? In earlier days there were no algorithms to collect the information. Any site which had more number of words that matched with the user’s search word would be displayed first and like wise other sites in descending order would be displayed depending on the count. But later on the spammers, bots, virus and other attacks have increased due to which the search engines couldn’t result the appropriate sites related to the user’s search. In order to avoid all these Search Engines started making complex algorithms and give the users best and quality results using Search Engine Algorithms.

These are the algorithms that search engine follows and they vary for different streams. But now how can you make your website visible to search engine and people? This is the question through which most beginners keep along, for this there is a process called “Search Engine Optimization”

Search Engine Optimization is a process of making your website visible on search engine results page. This is a kind of online marketing technique. The main aim of SEO is obtaining a better rank for the website by which the website will be resulting in the first results page.

To improve website’s ranking there are many methods and techniques to improve ranking. At the same time there are some rules and guidelines for optimization. Based on this it is divided into two categories

White Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO.

White Hat SEO is that which follows and go along with SEO guidelines and rules, to increase the reputation and ranking of he website. By these techniques the result will be slow and takes longer time to improve ranking than Black Hat SEO techniques but will be long lasting and reputed. The White Hat SEO techniques include

On Page Factors: On Page optimization includes the activities that take place within the website’s pages itself.

Meta Description tag

ALT tags

H1 tags

URL structure

Internal linking strategy

Content

Keyword density

Site maps, both XML and user facing

Usability and accessibility

Track target keywords

Keyword selection

Off Page Factors: Off Page Optimization includes the activities that takes place in another sites, for example : Link Building.

Use Keywords in link anchor text

Obtain links from high ranking publisher sites

One-way inbound links

Different keywords in your link-ads from the same site

Gradual link building technology

Use relevant keywords near your inbound link

Deep linking

Target a large list of keywords more than 500

Link from sites with a variety of link ranks

Track all active keywords and refine strategy as required

On Page VS Off Page (SEO):

In this new internet world just On Page Optimization is not sufficient for a better ranking. For better ranking first of all you need traffic to your website which is done by off page SEO. With the help of off page optimization factors like link building, in bound link helps you in getting traffic to your website. Once you get the traffic, for better user experience you need the help of On Page Optimization factors like quality and relevant content, give users a better experience by increasing the web pages fast loading time, short links and making it user-friendly which is all a part of On Page SEO.

There are more than 200 ranking factors that help in making website’s rank better.These include both on page and off page factors.

Black Hat SEO techniques are those which conflict or do not follow the SEO guidelines. These techniques are used to improve the ranking quickly in short period of time. By using these the techniques the ranking improves fast, it is unpredictable and the ranking may consistent for short term. Some of the tricks and techniques of Black Hat SEO are:

Content Spam Include :

Keyword Stuffing

Hidden Text

Doorway Pages

Scraper sites

Article spinning

Meta tag stuffing

Link Spam Include :

Hidden links

Sybil Attack

Link building software

Spam blogs

Page hijacking

Cookie Stuffing

Spam Comment

Purchasing expired domains.

Others :

Cloaking

URL Redirection

Mirror websites

By following the Black Hat SEO techniques the website may be banned and a penalty has to be paid.

Checklist for better ranking:

Checkout these 12 points for better ranking in short duration. It don’t say it will be a drastic change in ranking but will help in getting better.

Front-load tag : Target keywords should be at the beginning of the title tag.

Short url : Try to keep url as short as possible.

Use Multimedia : In blogs use atleast one multimedia, for better user interaction.

Use outbound links : Cover atleast one or two outbound links to any popular site in the content you publish.

Target keywords in H1 : Always keep title in H1 tag and also the target words should be within first 100 word of the article.

Social Sharing buttons : These buttons are must as they make it easy for users to share the content and should be placed at the right place.

Publish Long Content : Write relevant and long content for more than 1500 words which is considered as long article.

Use LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords : LSI keywords are those words which are accompanied by the target keywords. For example “Stationary” is the target key word then LSI words would be “notebooks”,”pen”, “pencil” etc.

Internal linking : When you are posting a new article try to have an internal link to the older articles related to that topic.

Dwell Time : Write a long and interesting content for the users to keep on reading. That increases dwell time I.e, the time a user stays in the page till he click back button.

Image optimization : The keyword’s images might bring you traffic through Google images, this is not much important but still why loose a chance.

Many would be wondering Is SEO necessary? Yes, especially if you are owning an e-commerce website as it is available only through online. You will need more customers for your business to get into next level, and obviously you need a better ranking for your website for search engine to show up your website in the results first page organically. Organic results are those results which are genuine and have better quality and reputation unlike paid marketing.

Online business is growing much faster and they rely on online users. So to attract them towards their site and get notified SEO is necessary. SEO will not only improve the site’s ranking but also divert traffic to the site from different sources present on internet. It improves small or big business with methods and tactics and also gives your company a ”brand” identification. SEO has methods for all types of businesses small or big, even methods for low and high budgets. But SEO is as an ongoing process, once you get a better ranking it doesn’t mean you should stop SEO process, it should be continued as ranking may cahnge any time as out there many competitors would be trying their best.

With so many tools and methods, SEO has rocked in online marketing with the best organic results and serving the users appropriately. It is also helping the relevant websites to provide quality service to users.

A database is a collection of data stored at one place and can easily be accessed and retrieved. The data can be in any format, it can either be an audio, video, numbers or letters. It is designed to provide an organized method of storing data and retrieving the data.

What is the purpose of database?

The main purpose of database is to store information for electronic devices so as to retrieve the same data from any other electronic device. The database may contain important documents and files and can be retrieved when necessary.

How information is stored in database?

Basically the information entered is stored in tables, these tables have a simple and organized way to input information. It has a similar appearance as Microsoft excel sheet or Lotus 123. There is also a facility to create fields like name, address, phone number etc.

What are different types of databases?

There are many kinds of databases that are differentiated by its way of storing and retrieving data. They are:

Document-oriented Database: It is a computer programmed design which is designed to store, retrieve, manage all the documents in a computer or any hardware like tablets, phones etc.

Embedded Database: These kinds of databases are generally developed by the end users. For instance collection of documents, storing files, spreadsheets, presentations, media files etc.

Graph Database: This kind of database does not use SQL to store information, instead graph structures are used. Graph structures are developed with nodes, edges and other properties to represent and store the information.

Hypertext Database: This kind of database is used to organize different types of information together. For instance they can be used to store encyclopedias.

Operational Database: These databases store the information of an organization in detail.

Distributed Database: In this database information is not stored in a CPU, it is distributed among the computers located in same area or distributed among the network for interconnected computers.Flat-File: These type of databases are used for small amount of data which is readable by human and can be edited.

Database Hosting are services are delivered by hosting providers. They provide services which enable you to run database supported applications. In this, a server is exclusively used for database or a website as per client’s requirement. Database Hosting is mainly required for clients who use applications that need to run programs like Customer Relation Management and Enterprise Resource Planning. As those applications require more memory, clients choose database hosting to increase the reliability of the application.

What are different types Database Hosting software?

There are many software available for database management system as there are different type of database management system. There are three kinds of database management systems, they are: Hierarchical DBMS, Network DBMS i.e., Relational DBMS and Object-Oriented DBMS.

MySQL: It is an open source relational database management system. It is the popular choice of database for use in applications and is widely used in LAMP which is the acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python.

MSSQL: It is developed by Microsoft Corporation. It is also widely used in web applications which are developed by ASP.net, ASP etc. It provides different versions of SQL Server for different uses with different features.

Benefits of Database Hosting:

A database server can store a lot of information and can be retrieved easily. The information stored can be retrieved in seconds, this increases the performance of an application. For Example, Google loads more than billion pages within seconds, this is due to database. Whereas a normal web server cannot retrieve data as fast as a database. As database is very important for an application it will have more RAM due to which its performance and speed increases.

Redirect is a way to lead users and search engines to another url rather than actually which is requested for, this is usually done when the data is moved or the pages are expired. Redirect option is also present in email clients, it is similar to forward option. If you get a mail from abc@alpha.com and your mail id is xyz@alpha.com and you redirect the same mail to another email id then the email received will have from address like this:

From: abc@alpha.com (by way of “your name” <xyz@alpha.com>)

Types of Redirect:

There are five types of redirects:

1. 301 Permanent Redirect:

This communicates that the document at this address has permanently moved and hence the references to old address should be deleted and updated to new address. It also maintains search engine ranks.

USE:

If you want to delete a page then use 301 to forward the user to a logical location.

Even if you want to make a particular part of a document unavailable in favor of other, you can use 301 former to latter.

2. 302 Found(Temporary Redirect):

This communicates that the document is temporarily moved. This means the old url can be brought back in future. This does not transfer any of the SEO juice and value of the original page.

USE:

If you want to test a page for client feedback then use 302.

If your site or page is under maintenance then 302 can be used.

3. 303 See Other:

To avoid book markings and refreshing pages that have only one time data entry such as bill payments. This indicates that the information is received from you form by POST method and to avoid data accidents ,you can check the response by looking at the next url which shows the information using GET method. It also indicates that the resource has been replaced.

USE:

It is used by the web developers for credit card payments and other payments .

4. 307 Temporary Redirect:

This is similar to 303, the difference is without changing the information submitted from one technique to another, it is submitted in the same technique used.

USE:

It is used by web developers.

5. 308 Permanent Redirect:

This is same as 307 but it is permanent redirect. You cannot use the previous url again.

USE:

It is used by web developers.

Most useful and important redirects:

301 and 302 are most widely used redirects. They are defined by their server status.

For Example:

301: “Moved 301 the data requested is assigned to new url permanently”.

302: “Found 302 the data requested resides under different url however the redirection may be altered on occasion”.

There is also another type of redirection called Meta Refresh which is also used to a range.

Meta Refresh:

This is a browser based redirect. It is associated with pages that refresh after few seconds. These are mostly used at the payment gateways and should not be used unless there is a specific reason like this.

Exciting offer for those who intend to start Reseller Web Hosting service on both Linux and Windows platforms. You can manage both Linux and Windows clients account from one single panel. Now can have your own pricing, own DNS. With your own DNS, you can show yourself as if you are the Hosting Providers. Also, offer free website builder using which you can design your service domain within 10 minutes and can start proceed with your reseller hosting business.

We are currently offering free registration of service domain (.com TLD) with Reseller Hosting Service. To grab this offer, sign up for Reseller service with Semi-Annual/Annual Billing Period and contact our Support team. Our support team would immediately register the new service domain for free. This is a limited period offer so HURRY UP.

Terms and Conditions

* This offer is valid till the end of this month (September 2013)
* This offer is applicable for Semi-Annual and Annual Billing Periods.
* Free Domain registration offer is valid for one year. Need to pay regular price for the next renewal.